The Shocking Way These Worms Might Be Good for Your Fertility

A new study from the Science journal found that the parasite you see above leads to "earlier first births and shortened inter birth intervals." After studying 986 Bolivian women over the course of nine years, researchers found those of them who were infected with the ascaris lumbricoides roundworm had two more children than those who weren't.

The scientists conducted the study in Bolivia because 70 percent of the population has a parasitic infection, the BBC reports. One of the study's researchers Professor Aaron Blackwell told the BBC he believes this particular roundworm infection is "altering women's immune systems, such that they become more or less friendly towards a pregnancy."

He also believes the potential to change women's fertility drugs with this knowledge is huge, but that not enough is yet known about the effects to recommend anyone try anything with this infection yet.

Contrastingly the study found that a hookworm infection (pictured below)has the opposite effects of an ascaris lumbricoides one on female fertility. Women infected with hookworm had "delayed first pregnancy and extended interbirth intervals" leading to less children overall.

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According to the CDC, as many as 740 million people worldwide are infected with hookworm, though it's less common in the U.S. now than it used to be. Both hookworms and ascaris infections can be contracted by walking barefoot on contaminated soil.

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